No rain. Sun and a tease of humidity. At lunchtime I pocketed onigiri and headed for a stroll out along paddy fields and brown river waters. So many turtles. A hundred or so. Some basking, others pecking at the floating corpses of large dead fish - one of which looked exactly like it had been surprised to death. I like turtles. I like surprised looking dead fish too.

In the afternoon, the Japanese, Japanese teacher came to talk to me. She showed me some kanji stroke order. She asked me about Shihomi, my girlfriend and then taught me the kanji for 'passion', perhaps a little off the mark but appreciated anyway. She told me to study hard, wished me luck and then told me that even though she had studied English for almost 10 years, she couldn't speak it at all. I wondered if she might be hustling me and had in fact read this blog's previous entry.

She spoke only in Japanese. I understood.

This has been a peak.

Tomorrow - a fearful visit to the dentist and then Kyoto. I like turtles but I love Kyoto.